Friday, July 30, 2010

I was very saddened recently to hear that one of my favorite people in all of popular music, Myrna Smith, has been having some serious health issues and is need of some help. Myrna, once a High School teacher from New Jersey, was the co-founder of one of Soul Music's greatest groups, The Sweet Inspirations, and she is a very special artist. Outside of possessing an incredible voice, that's heard on The Sweets on albums as well as their backing work with the likes of Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield and Elvis Presley, Myrna is an accomplished songwriter (check out her contributions to Carl Wilson's solo albums), Civil-Rights activist and special friend to her many fans. Her recent health issues have a lot of her fans worried so a benefit concert called Back in Memphis has been scheduled to help her out, as well as pay tribute to someone who was one of her biggest fans, Elvis Presley. Information on the Back in Memphis concert can be found here, so if you are anywhere in the Memphis Area on August 12th please check it out. Guests include Billy Swan, Jack Clement, Reggie Young and several others and I will be there to see a great show and hopefully help Myrna out. If you can't make the show but wish to send your good wishes to Myrna, cards and contributions can be mailed to the following address:

Myrna is recovering from a stroke and is currently on dialysis so any well-wishes or spare-cash you can spare to help with her mounting medical bills would be extremely appreciated. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Myrna, may I recommend any of these following albums:

2 comments:

yisagirl1
said...

I can hardly take or believe this, seems like yesterday MYRNA was out there with ELVIS singing and joking. Great woman great humor awesome singer writer and most of all full of love. As time passes so quickly before our eyes its hard to comprehend. She contributed to this world in a wonderful way. I only wish he'd the best and Elvis sang FUNNY HOW TIME SLIPS AWAY: VERY SADDENED BY THIS.

I am the editor and co-creator of the quarterly print only publication Art Decades as well as the author of the upcoming From Emmanuelle to Chabrol: Sylvia Kristel in the Seventies. I'm also the creator of a number of film and music blogs including Moon in the Gutter, Fascination: The Jean Rollin Experience, The Sylvia Kristel Archives and Harry Moseby Confidential. I live in Colorado with my wife Kelley and our three dogs Maizie, Topper and Ziggy Pop.